The Arch-Archangelic hierarchies are created from the Divine-Archangelic
Gods. Here we have a further increase in the multiplicity of things,
and a further decrease in the purity and infinity of consciousness.
Whereas the Divine Gods have a Cosmic existence, in that the boundaries
of their beings are equal in vastness to the boundaries of the universe,
the beings of Archangelic hypostasis for the first time begin to exist
as seperate centres of consciousness distinct from (even if in total harmony
and one-ness with) the rest of the universe.

But the appearance of individuality and multiplicity here also means
the appearance of duality; the loss of the original Cosmic-Divine Unity.
Hence it is here that the principle of "maya" or duality first begins to
act; maya being understood as the activity of consciousness that measures
and divides. Yet whereas standard Hindu monism, e.g. the school of
Advaita Vedanta, only has a single maya-principle, the emanationist Vedanta
of Kashmir Shaivism refers to a hierarchy of mayas. The highest of
these is called, logically enough, the Para-Mahamaya-tattwa, that is, the
Highest Great Maya principle. This represents the lowest sub-plane
of Sadvidya-tattwa, the lowest of the Divine Planes. Its realisation
is the afore-mentioned Vidyeshwara state, the highest state where there
still exists a subtle sense of self or seperateness (anava-mala).

Because this is the region in which there exist (through the activity
of the anava-mala) seperate entities of pure Spirit, it could be considered
equivalent to the uppermost part of the Universe of Beriah in Kabbalah;
what we could call "Keter of Beriah", as in Kabbalistic metaphysics the
Divine soul (neshamah) originates from Beriah. Although I have not
come across any descriptions of Keter of Beriah - the original Kabbalists
prefer to consider the Godhead of Atzilut, whereas the modern Hermetic
Qabalists seem to describe and deal with the Universe of Asiyah (or Universe
of Yetzirah; depending on where you match the Kabbalistic terms) - it logically
would slot in here.

A parallel with Kabbalah can here be found here in the post-Blavatskyian
"Adyar" school of Theosophy, with its reference to the Anupadaka or Monadic
Plane, so called because this region is the locus of the monads or original
divine souls [A. E. Powell, The Causal Body, pp.8-10 (online part 1, Part 2; Causal Body and the Ego]. The
concept of the monad is however ambiguous, because it can also be taken
to mean the original individuation within the Absolute Itself. A
further complication comes about due to the fact that the Divine Soul could
be interperted as standing behind, rather than above, ordinary consciousness
[Aurobindo, Letters, vol 1,; Barbara Ann Brennan, Light Emerging]. But because the monadic plane as such is one of the
seven planes to emanate from the Absolute or Parabrahman (ignoring here
the complexities of Blavatsky's seven Kosmic planes), it has to be located
here, rather than in the Absolute.

In Kashmir Shaivism this would constitute the Apara-Mahamaya ("Lower
Supreme Maya") principle, where dwell the Vijnanakalas or "Units of Consciousness".
This is below the pure (= Divine) tattwas such as Sadvidya-tattwa, but
above maya and the limitations of form. Here we see the development
of sense of seperate self (anava-mala) proper. However, the
vijnanakalas that dwell on this plane are still beyond birth and death,
maya and karma.

Psychologically, the Archai plane of existence would be equivalent to
the Post-Plotinian Neoplatonic hypostasis of Nous or Divine Intellect (and
the corresponding Noeric Gods), which overshadows the human intellect (psyche)
and may illumine it from above. This seems similar to Sri Aurobindo's
description of the state of higher Intuition beyond the ordinary and even
beyond the Higher Mind, but beneath the Overmind (= the Divine Ontocosm)
[Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine,, pp.946-950].

Blavatsky's sixth or Alaya plane, and the post-Blavatsky fifth or Atmic
plane (the first of the sub-Divine or sub-Logoic or evolutionary planes
[Powell, The Causal Body, pp.4-5]), might also be placed here.

Again, this would be the same as the Universe of Beriah in Kabbalah,
so-called because it is outside the Godhead or world of Atzilut [Gershom
Scholem, Kabbalah, pp.118-119] (or at least, Hokmah and Binah of Beriah,
and the origin of the soul (neshamah) proper.

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